Chamber News

Greater Fort Lauderdale Adds Nearly 13,000 Jobs Year-Over-Year

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the Fort Lauderdale area added 12,900 new private-sector jobs in the past year. The Fort Lauderdale area’s unemployment rate was 3.1 percent in March 2019, down 0.4 percentage point from one year ago.

The industries with the highest growth over the year in the Fort Lauderdale area were professional and business services with 4,500 new jobs and education and health services with 4,200 new jobs.

Fort Lauderdale remains among the top four metro areas in online job demand in Florida with 30,100 openings in March. Also, the area had the fifth-highest number of openings for high-skill, high-wage Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) occupations with 7,488 job ads.

Further Analysis

In March 2019, non-agricultural employment in the Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Bch-Deerfield Bch Metro Division was 862,700, an increase of 12,500 jobs (+1.5 percent) over the year.

The Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Bch-Deerfield Bch Metro Division had the highest annual job growth compared to all the metro areas in the state in other services (+1,900 jobs) in March 2019.

The Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Bch-Deerfield Bch Metro Division had the second highest annual job growth compared to all the metro areas in the state in financial activities (+2,300 jobs) in March 2019.

The Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Bch-Deerfield Bch Metro Division was tied for the second highest annual job growth compared to all the metro areas in the state in information (+100 jobs) in March 2019.

The Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Bch-Deerfield Bch Metro Division had the third fastest annual job growth rate compared to all the metro areas in the state in other services (+5.0 percent) and education and health services (+3.8 percent) in March 2019.

The Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Bch-Deerfield Bch Metro Division had the third highest annual job growth compared to all the metro areas in the state in education and health services (+4,200 jobs) in March 2019.

The other services (+5.0 percent); financial activities (+3.8 percent); education and health services (+3.8 percent); and information (+0.5 percent) industries grew faster in the metro area than statewide over the year.

The leisure and hospitality (-2,000 jobs) and government (-400 jobs) industries lost jobs over the year.

Statewide, Florida businesses created 12,600 new private-sector jobs in March 2019. Florida’s annual private-sector job growth rate of 2.7 percent continues to exceed the nation’s rate of 1.9 percent. Florida’s unemployment rate of 3.5 percent represents a drop of 0.3 percentage point over the year. This is while 158,000 people entered Florida’s labor force, a growth of 1.6 percent in the past year.